Once again, the Roman snake god Glycon graces us with its presence! Top Shelf released a PR Friday stating that the fourth installment to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, following The Black Dossier, would be released tentatively in April.

courtesy Top Shelf

“At last! The League returns, better than ever! It’s a new age,
a new publisher, and an all-new adventure, packed with even
more metafictional fisticuffs and diachronic derring-do!

Top Shelf is proud to announce the all-new chapter in the
breathtaking series by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III):
Century #1 (”1910″), our familiar cast of Victorian literary
characters (or what’s left of them) enters the brave new world
of the 20th century!

The present installment is set against a backdrop of London,
1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion and nine
years since England put a man upon the moon. In the bowels of
the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by
visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create
something called a Moonchild, while on London’s dockside the
most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has
returned to carry on his grisly trade. Working for Mycroft
Holmes’ British Intelligence alongside a rejuvenated Allan
Quatermain, the reformed thief Anthony Raffles and the eternal
warrior Orlando, Miss Murray is drawn into a vile opera acted
out upon the waterfront by players that include the furiously
angry Pirate Jenny and the charismatic butcher known as Mac the
Knife. Sounds like a ripping good tale, eh?

This book will be the first of three deluxe, 80-page,
full-color, perfect-bound graphic novellas, by the original
League of Extraordinary Creators: Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill,
Ben Dimagmaliw (colors), and Todd Klein (lettering). Each
self-contained narrative takes place in three distinct eras,
building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own
twenty-first century!”

Start catching up on your early 20th century occult fiction! I know I am.

From Zero To Zero

Avengers: The Initiative was a very promising series. Even during the crossover World War Hulk, the story stayed confined to the main characters, young kids in training to be full-blown Avengers. But now the series fluctuates its attention every panel or so, and there has been really no main focus other than the derailment caused by the Secret Invasion crossover, where new characters were introduced and given far too much attention.

The one mystery that was still interesting and present was that of Mutant Zero, the unknown mutant who was on a black ops hero team. Now, originally we were teased with the notion that this was a former main X-Man, one that non-comic people would recognize. But in the recent issue (#20) of Initiative, Mutant Zero was revealed to be Typhoid Mary, a Daredevil villain. That is pretty weak, mainly because the title is already saturated with B to Z list characters.

I love Marvel because there are so many characters, but that’s its biggest weakness, too. With so much “having” to be addressed, any sort of narrative is tossed to the wind. I expect that from mainstream comics, but not from individual series. When I can’t have more than 6 issues of consistent story and characters, I wonder why am I even reading these sorts of comics. I’m wondering that now.

Thom Zahler, the writer and illustrator of Love and Capes, is one of the fine gentlemen I had the pleasure of meeting at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con. His series is a romantic comedy that plays on romance and super hero conventions, blending the two together into a funny, intelligent comic series that honors and pokes at the genres it replicates.

Today a contest was announced in a press release from Mr. Zahler:

“Valentine’s Day is coming up, and since I write comicdom’s most romantic superhero book, I figure I ought to do something to celebrate. So I am. I’m doing a giveaway.

You can sign up at http://www.loveandcapes.com”

I highly encourage new comic readers to check out this series for several reasons. First off, this series is not based on pre-existing characters. You will discover these heroes and the supporting cast without needing to worry about back issues and continuity. However, the series does play on comic conventions, things that are symptomatic to comics you could soon read. Comedywise, this is a great critique of the super hero formula and can allow a new reader easy access to what usually seems like a monster industry.

But don’t take my word for it, click the link to see what it’s about!

images courtesy Thomas Zahler

courtesy DC

The War is over. The Adversary deposed and the Homelands are in shambles. Ancient evils that the Empire had contained are now free, changing the status of magic and the Fables world. The first big change - the complete destruction of Fabletown.

It seems as though writer Bill Willingham spent years building up the characters and the status quo just so he could tear it apart. The real story is just beginning, Willingham claimed at San Diego Comic Con, and we can see what is going to happen: new enemies, new problems, Charming is dead, Boy Blue injured and a mechanical tiger leads a resistance of Jungle Book Fables with Mowgli.

What Vertigo books do in general, unlike DC or Marvel books, is change. You can see this in DC and Marvel’s constant story rebooting with franchises like Superman or Spider-man. There’s a formula and we have to stick to it. Willingham and other “graphic novel” writers write more like TV or movie writers, where things do change. Unlike shows like House or comics like Spider-man, where the status quo is rigidly enforced with the illusion of change, Fables progresses. The rigid formula shows aren’t bad of course, but after awhile of the same web-slinging and similar trial-by-error diagnosis wear a bit thin, and comics like Fables set up a formula to break it down, making the alteration much more satisfying and expected.

So what I’m saying, in the semi-words of The Simpsons‘ Comic Book Guy, is: “Best comic ever.”

With issue #14’s departure of long-time writer Judd Winick, Green Arrow and Black Canary has been taken over by writer Andrew Kreisberg. Is the series over or starting anew?

One of the things that Winick kept with the book was a consistent humorous chemistry that played out between the supporting cast, the Arrow family, and their interactions with the diverse community of heroes and villains that live in the DCU. Continuing almost breathlessly from Kevin Smith’s relaunch of the series, Winick’s run of this book saw the marriage of Green Arrow and Black Canary, plus redefined Arrow’s kids.

The brightly colorful book was one of my favorite DC titles, and I hate having a bias going into a series, but I admit I am already against this new writer because he’s not Winick. So far I don’t hate Kreisberg, though. This issue was a summary book, designed to get readers up to speed with what’s happened in the past, so as such couldn’t really do too much. Characters parted ways, sadly, as I love the new Speedy, but really there was not so much story as there was flashback. This is okay, of course, but not a strong indicator of the series’ future potential.

What I did like was the book didn’t suck. For a recap, it did a good job of keeping me reading and the dialog was humorous, reminiscent of Winick’s style. While nothing really pulled me in, probably due to my negative predisposition, the book didn’t push me away, either. I’m willing to give this book a chance.

When It Reigns It Pours

Secret Invasion ended last week. I wish there was more to say about it than that, but that’s pretty much what happened. It ended abruptly, Wasp died, and then we quickly got away from that Skrull nonsense and jumped into Dark Reign mode, the next Marvel cross-title gimmick.

We should be used to this by now - the massive build up into the crossover and the quick deflation, which happened with House of M, Civil War and World War Hulk. And we should also be used to the way a new status quo is set.

Now this is probably due to Bendis’ style of writing, throwing several characters together and seeing what happens. But what we are continually seeing is another team or sets of teams thrown together, pulled by their respective stories and redefining Marvel due to the new situations they get thrust into. Of course that’s what always happens, I guess, but let’s look at the Illuminati, the New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Secret Warriors and now the Dark Reign team. These groups are just cobbled together for invented reasons, so that random and now important characters can bounce off of each other. Read the rest of this entry »

According to recent news, Bill Willingham’s comic epic, Fables, will be given the chance to wow the top ABC brass to see if the show could make it to air. Fables is about a world where fairy tales are real and live in our world. Forced from their otherworldly fairy tale dimensions, the Fables try to keep themselves hidden from us and the foe they have fled.

The series is one of the best comic books out there today, mixing spy thriller, comedy, romance, epic fantasy and political genres into one massive story that deals with the lives of several popular, less popular or never heard of fairy tale legends. While the story focuses primarily on the Big Bad Wolf, reformed of course, and Snow White, later we see characters like Little Boy Blue, King Cole, Beauty, Beast, The Frog Prince, and dozens of others take center stage.

Fables would make a great TV show in the current market due to this chemistry. Shows today focus on several characters (think Lost or Heroes, even Grey’s Anatomy has several players). More people means more drama and more story-driven conflict due to various interactions. This would be on top of the epic fantasy and political drama the external storylines Willigham crafted to guide the characters.

But of course, a pilot is just a first episode, meant to see if the show would be worth it in the long run. Fables the comic had a lot of mileage, but if we try to slow down the conflict to have a lot of star-studded drama scenes, would the show be a legitimate translation? Probably not, but then again, for this series, I’m willing to wait and see what we get.

Christian characters in modern comics are jokes. This can be debated, of course, but the general attitude towards these token characters tends to be hostile. The secular mindset prevails in most comics and gets the last word over Christians that may be in any given book. Other religions are another issue - non-Christian religions are usually respected, yet when secular or atheist negativity appears it is usually directed towards the Christians. Every once in awhile a writer will throw in what they feel is a genuine Christian character, you know to be nice to that minority, and it usually comes off as a flat representation of what people think Christians are.

courtesy DC

Alan Moore’s Top 10 was a fantastic series, not just because of the crazy homages to super hero and comic conventions, but because its characters where fully developed in the short time they were introduced. Peregrine is a super hero who flies using a wing suit, happily married to her husband, and a member of the Top 10 police force. She also happens to be Christian. Moore handles this character with respect, putting her in a faith questioning situation in the original comics, and reinforcing her beliefs even though Christianity is in disagreement with Moore’s practice of magic and belief in a Roman snake god.

Let’s jump forward to the first “sequel” to Top 10, Top 10: The Farthest Precinct. Here writer Paul Di Filippo was just mean to the character Peregrine. He has Peregrine see Jesus drunk in a bar, having been called in to deal with his disorderly conduct. This sends her into a faith questioning spiral that was handled without regard for the way Moore had already set up the character. Likewise, this recent issue of Top 10 Season Two, not written by Moore, has Peregrine’s husband cross dressing into other costumes, a socially unacceptable practice, especially for this conservative Christian. In fact, the couple goes to Premise Keepers, clearly a parody of the Christian men group, the Promise Keepers. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh My Gog

This single issue is a tie-in to the Kingdom series, the “sequel” to Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ masterpiece Kingdom Come, which featured a futuristic DC Universe driven mad by its heroes, beautifully rendered as lifelike paintings. Recently the series Justice Society of America, the precursor team to the Justice League, has been involved in a Kingdom Come crossover, where the Superman from that alternate reality has come to the main DC universe. In the course of uncovering his purpose and the mystery in the series, the god known as Gog has appeared to usher in a better tomorrow for the world.

courtesy DC

Branching away from Justice Society, three single issues have come out to expand and/or continue that storyline - Kingdom Come Special: Superman, Kingdom Come Special: Magog and Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom. The Magog issue specifically focused on a new character, Lance Corporal David Reid, the great grandson of FDR who was given super powers during a mission in Iraq. As far as the character goes, he’s not the only new character. DC and JSA in particular have become saturated with new heroes with manufactured legacies that confuse and sidetrack the story and readers, and Magog is one of them.

I can respect this character as he is allegorically meant to be a hero of our time, a soldier who volunteers for the armed forces after 9/11 and fights in current, real-life conflicts. But as far as that goes the purpose of the character is pretty straightforward - he is allegorically meant to be a hero of our time, a soldier who volunteers for the armed forces after 9/11 and fights in current, real-life conflicts. The idea of respect and honor of our armed forces is there, but not really - how can it be when that very character who is meant to be a positive American role model is statically portrayed as a “conflicted” and stereotypical soldier?

That aside, the story was decent. While the whole tie-in nonsense and this ploy to get more money is evident, this specific story did have an engaging story, the only problem being it was constructed of the above flaws. While Final Crisis is dying down and all the DC crap is getting straightened out, JSA is sadly still askew. The writer who prompted this stuff, Geoff Johns, is Mr. DC right now, writing several titles, and because of this he is given what seems like total creative autonomy (unless some of the titles are ghost written). Johns is a great writer, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be kept in check. Every cool idea, like making up 3 new characters an issue, or making a sequel to a perfect title from over a decade ago, should be shot down by the water cooler.

Get Me My Toga

Jay and Silent Bob’s Kevin Smith is a passionate film-maker, and from seeing movies like Chasing Amy and Mallrats, it is apparent that Smith is also a passionate comic enthusiast. Smith has even written comics, and not just View Askew related. Smith headed the relaunch of Marvel’s Daredevil and DC’s Green Arrow a few years back, giving a fresh take and new look to series that would have died, and still influence writers of the current series today.

courtesy DC

At San Diego Comic Con Smith announced his three issue Batman miniseries, Batman: Cacophony, illustrated by View Askew cult favorite Walt Flanagan (see Walt Flanagan’s dog). And unlike some of Smith’s comic projects in the past, where publishing schedules were delayed by late scripts, this short mini was almost completely written before it was released, assuaging the fears of all us nerds in the crowd.

So now that the first issue has hit stands, does it live up to the hype? Smith does a good job subverting our expectations - Batman’s role, while prominent, is downplayed. The focus of this issue is on Joker, Maxie Zeus (see Batman: the Animated Series) and the Smith created villain of Green Arrow fame, Onomatopoeia, who says the sounds the environment make instead of speaking. This comic was a darker version of Batman, which included several (crying) children held hostage at knife point, the Joker depantsing in eager anticipation of sex and a pair of bloodied corpses (the parents of said crying children).

The comic was well written, set up a compelling plot, yada yada yada. I hate that this good writing had to be shrouded in juvenile “dark” and “mature” gimmicks like death and trauma that were without purpose or reason. There is a legitimate point going to be made with the violence against children and parents, paralleled against Batman’s past, especially knowing Onomatopoeia tries to kill the kids of super heroes.. probably… I hope. For that, I can excuse Smith’s choice of the graphic, for now at least, but knowing there’s these so far unnecessary “realistic” elements present, you can decide for yourself if you want to read this book.